Appendix:Grammar/Common grammar
Introduction In this paper, I strive to explicate the grammar of Zekaisivarsi that is common to all peoples across dialects and to expound upon significant regional idiosyncrasies. This is written primarily for Indo-Europeans and thus uses linguistic terms peculiar to them. Units of speech A speech unit is an independent morpheme with a particular function in expressing a thought. The speech units belong to particular speech categories, 'including ''substantives, enumeratives, qualificatives, relatives, descriptives, essives, copulatives, factives, ideophones, and particles. Substantives A 'substantive '''is a speech unit that denotes an entity, that is, someone or something that does something or that has attributes. It is similar to the concepts of ''nouns and pronouns. For example, examine the sentence '''rhahail ar. In this sentence, ar is a substantive because s/he does something, namely, rhahail. A substantive can also possess an attribute in a discourse rather than do something. This is typically expressed with essives or copulatives. In this sentence, zu is the topic of this sentence and is stated to have an attribute, namely, pau. The topic is considered the substantive. Inflection A substantive may or may not be inflected depending on its class, sentence context, and discourse. Conditions for inflection A substantive is inflected if: * its number, gender, or standing is relevant to the discourse * it is used with an uninflected verb * it stands in place of another substantive, thus acting as a pronoun-like substantive A substantive is uninflected if: * it precedes or follows an enumerative * its number, gender, and standing are irrelevant to the discourse * it indicates an attribute What are substantives inflected for? Substantives are inflected for class (animate vs. inanimate), gender (masculine vs. feminine vs. epicene vs. common), case (ergative, absolutive, accusative, etc.), standing (superior vs. common vs. inferior), clusivity (including you vs. excluding you), number (singular, dual, trial, pental, ''and plural), and possessedness (inherent vs. exherent). = Class = The '''class '''of a substantive is its categorization according to its semantic properties, its animacy. ''Animacy is the quality of igwai, often translated spirituality or soulishness. The class of a substantive affects its relation, or binding, with other words in a discourse. A higher-''igwai'' substantive can have possessive or inherent relation with a lower-''igwai'' substantive and is said to take precedence over the lower-''igwai''. However, a lower-''igwai'' can only have inherent relation toward a higher-''igwai''. Examine the phrases below. Why do these phrases mean exactly the same thing, at least literally? This is because higher-''igwai'' substantives are more salient then lower-''igwai'' substantives. Salience, or primacy, is the significance of an entity to a discourse, relative to other entities in the discourse. A human, for example, is more salient than a book. = Gender = The gender of a substantive is its inflection and relation to other words in a discourse according to the natural gender of its class or of its associated class. The genders are masculine, feminine, epicene, and common. Masculine '''gender comprises male animals, including humans, as well as male clothing and natural things associated with masculinity. '''Feminine gender comprises female animals, including humans, as well as female clothing and natural things associated with femininity. Epicene gender comprises mixed-gender groups and entities with qualities of both genders, including hermaphrodite. = Standing = The standing of a substantive is the social position of its referent. Enumeratives An enumerative is a word that indicates quantity of a thing. It answers the question “How many?” Enumeratives comprise numerals and some modifiers. Numerals A numeral 'is an enumerative that indicates a specific amount. Because Zekaiseii use a base-5 counting system, most traditional numerals are based on the word ''paj, which literally means “hand”. Functions of numerals 'Numerals '''are used to count (skih, “to count, enumerate, measure, reckon”) entities of a particular kind. Using numerals in discourse Because numerals are based on words with literal bodily meanings (some of which are quite gruesome), numerals MUST be introduced with the enumerative particle ''ski when they are used to qualify substantives. Binay ski paj ayri. I have five siblings. When a numeral is used as a substantive, ''ieii'' is affixed to the final word of the numeral as a substantivizing particle. Sijara jzail aur ''vigale?'' ''How many persons live here? ''Paj ej ipi iei (jara jzail). Six (persons live here). Numerals to 10 Numerals after 10 The Zekaiseii numerical system is based on ''paj, “the hand”, which typically has five fingers (ipi). To form numerals after ten, Zekaiseii use addition and multiplication. Paj usa ski paj usa one hundred Notice that this uses the enumerative particle ski after the first numeral. This indicates that the quantities of ten are being counted and have been found to amount to ten tens, or one hundred. Paj usa ej ipi eleven This uses the conjunction ej, “and, plus”, which combines numerical quantities. Quantifiers '''Quantifiers are words that indicate a particular, but not precise, amount of an entity. The most common quantifiers are listed below. fiel ar 'yefi.'' Every person breathes/all persons breathe. ''ichiri '''ura uau ma?'' Why’d you eat all the rice? araeii '''umba' fieahjel.'' Most (the majority of) people want to survive.'' '' vibaba 'iqa' wiei. I am drinking a little alcohol. Descriptives A descriptive is a word that indicates the qualities of, or describes, a substantive or a factive. Substantive-modifying descriptives It typically indicates the character or appearance of a person or the use, style, or appearance of an object. It usually follows its substantive. Multiple descriptives (serial descriptive construction) When two or more descriptives that modify a singular substantive exist in succession that are opposite, they act as a disjunctive phrase. When they are not opposite, they act as a conjunctive phrase. Because ajha and wji are antonyms to each other and they modify the same singular substantive, they are disjunctive Comparison To compare multiple instances of a substantive, one must alter the form of the descriptive and add a particle. = Positive comparison = To make positive comparisons of substantives from so-called regulariv descriptives, one reduplicates the first sound pair (NOT syllable). For example, say we have a descriptive ses'v'' which means “happy”. To form the comparative degree, we add the first sound pair of ses which is se to form seses which means “happier”. To form the superlative, simply add se to seses to form seseses which means “happiest”. (123… stem; 12123... comparative; 1212123… superlative) To explicitly compare one person or thing to another, one must use ''avaa'' “more than” without a comparative descriptive or a comparative descriptive alone. ''Seses''' ye zui. I am happier than you. ''[[Ses|'Ses']] ye avaa zui. I am happier than you. Yet, this is not the only way descriptives inflect for comparison. Some descriptives change their stem vowel. Factive-modifying descriptives A descriptive is comparable to an adjective in that it can modify noun-like substantives; however, some descriptives modify factives. (Qualificatives also modify verbs, but in a different way.) Factive-modifying descriptives are similar in principle to adverbs in English in that descriptives express the quality of an action. Factives Factives are speech units that indicate actions. They are similar to active and passive verbs. Derivation As a highly inflected language, Zekaisivarsi derives actives from various speech units such as substantives, descriptives, and ideophones. Here are some types of derivation. Substantive derivation Factives are often derived from substantives, especially body parts, to indicate an associated action of the substantives. Inflection In Zekaisivarsi, factives are inflected for several qualities, including person, tense, mood, and voice. Voice Voice is the quality of a sentence that indicates whether mentioned entities are agents or patients, active voice and passive voice, respectively. = Active voice = A factive in the active voice indicates that the first substantive bound to it is an agent, an entity who/that does the action specified by the factive. A bivalent active voice factive takes its subject in the ergative case and its object in the absolutive case. Eiy eiya '''dosil'.'' (him/her he/she is killing; OSV) They is killing him/her. A monovalent active voice factive takes its subject in the reflexive case. '' Eiy doseil.'' (Him/her is killing; O(iS)V) He/she kills himself/herself. = Passive voice = A factive in the passive voice promotes the patient to a subject and demotes the agent to an oblique or it indicates that its sole argument is a patient. Eiy '''doxil' pamhe zhe.'' (Him/her | died (“was killed”) | crook-OBLIQUE | by, due to action of) He was killed by a crook. Eiy '''afviel'.'' (Him/her | lives) He/she is alive. = Active-passive voice (“mediopassive”) = The active-passive voice '''is a grammatical structure that fuses activity and passivity in order to indicate that an entity’s being acted upon or having a certain quality affects another entity. The word ''yosfih'', which means “to smell like” or “to give off scent”, is active-passive. Some of the meaning is passive (“to be smelled”) and some is active, specifically, causative (“to smell like, cause to be smelled”). Tense The '''tense of a factive is the morphological quality that indicates the time at which an act is performed. There are three simple morphological tenses, preterit, present, and future and various compound tenses. = Present tense = The present tense indicates actions or events that are happening right now, in the present. Unlike English and other Indo-European languages which use the present tense to indicate actions that tend to happen and the present progressive to indicate actions that are taking place right now (I '''eat' vs. ''I '''am' eat'ing), Zekaisivarsi uses the present tense, also called the current tense, to denote actions that are happening or that apply at the time of the speech or writing; therefore, the current tense can be translated as simple present or present progressive according to the context. It tends to be the basic form of the word. ''Zui '''ame.'' I love you. This is not rendered I am loving you, as that would imply that love is a process with a set beginning and a set end. This expresses that the speaker has the feeling of love at the time that he/she says it. Jifru zue '''ski'.'' I find you not guilty. This denotes that a judge or jury has just reached a decision that is relevant right now. Riuai zwiei '''awai'.'' I am making dinner. This denotes that someone is making dinner currently. = Habitual tense = The habitual tense indicates actions or events that one tends to perform or that tend to occur up to the current time. It is used with dynamic and atelic actions, such as motion, communication, and thought. It typically involves a reduplication of the second syllable. Ajaelav '''pamimiwi'.'' I walk in the early morning. = Preterit tense = The preterit tense indicates actions or events that one performed or that occurred and were completed at a set point in the past. It tends to involve some form of internal stem change. Zui '''ivasahi' ajael zu pampamu.'' I saw you walking around early morning. umura '''pamawil'.'' S/he walked around the world. Irregularity Being more of a complex creole than a singular language, many grammatical features in Zekaisivarsi are not strictly established (though Rhajazekaisivar'vi'' are trying to institute specific rules to standardize the language), which is particularly evident in the various inflections of the factives. Several factives inflect only for certain persons, tenses, and moods (i.e. they are defective), change meaning when inflected (especially between perfective and imperfective), alternate between using affixes and stem changes, or use suppletive forms. Inflexion for specific categories In Zekaisivarsi, factives tend to inflect for personvii, tenseviii, and moodix. However, some factives are restricted to certain categories. '''Ai This factive means “I decree, I order, I command” and that alone. It inflects only for first-person singular present indicative. The word for others’ commands is iauheih which does not inflect for the first person, or perhaps it just has not been attested yet Factive combination Some factives depend on other factives to complete their meaning. The factives that complete meaning are called complements or coverbs ''and the dependent factives are called ''heads. pami wi factive I walk (to a place), I go (by walking) Qualificatives A qualificative is a word or morpheme that modifies a factive, substantive, or ideophone and is neither a descriptive nor an enumerative. Qualificatives typically intensify or diminish the meaning of a word. Common qualificatives indicate degree, frequency, intentionality, place, and time. '' '' Dosil '''wihaa '''uryei. He intentionally killed them. Some qualificatives also indicate obligation or requirement, somewhat like auxiliary verbs except that they’re not verbs. Dosiesu '''duje' zu arya.'' It is wrong for you to kill anyone. Ideophones Ideophones are speech units that express basic ideas, such as emotions and bodily feelings. They are typically monosyllabic. Au '''of pain '''Je '''of joy Particles '''Particles '''are speech units that perform grammatical functions without carrying much independent meaning of their own. They are comparable to conjunctions and adpositions. Each particle is governed by distinct rules. Sentences A '''sentence is a word or set of words that expresses a complete thought. It can take the structure agent-verb-patient, patient-agent-verb, or ideophone. There are several classes of sentence. Simple sentences A simple sentence consists of a single clause, a subject and a predicate. Efi. I am. I exist. (''ye is the implied'' subject; efi is the predicate) Ame zui. I love you. (ye is the implied subject; ame zui is the predicate) Questions When you need or want information from someone, you ask him or her questions. How are you? Several questions that are used in Zekaisivarsi can be translated to English as “How are you?” · Aja zu aabelei ma? (How-COMMENT you-TOPIC health-FOCUS QUESTION-MARKER) Inquires of one’s state of health o Belili ye aabelei. (Good-COMMENT I-TOPIC health-FOCUS) indicates that one is in good health. o Aqe ye aabelei. (Sick-COMMENT I-TOPIC health-FOCUS) indicates that one feels unwell · Aja zu ui ma? (How you with people INTERROGATIVE) Inquires of one’s relationships with people o Ayrigalmpi ye ui ha iharuie. (I know-I love | I | with another | the | intimate) I know someone and love him or her as a friend. o Uiakaak uiy. I am at enmity with people. Ma Ma is a general question word that is added at the end of a sentence to make it interrogative. If it is the only question word in a sentence, it can be translated what or how, depending on context. If other question words are in a sentence (such as aja, ajara, viaii, viau, etc.), it is often left untranslated. Zu avahaei ma? What/how should I call you? (NOT what is your name?) Vaueqiu ma? How do you feel about this? (taste-you how?) Viau zu il ma? Who are you? Disjunctive questions Disjunctive questions seek one of two answers. They are introduced with mai. Positive Questions of positive quality''' ' 'Mai' afiu?'' Are you breathing? Mai''' afid bele?'' Is life virtuous? Answers ' ' Conjunctive vs. disjunctive or in sentences Zekaisivarsi distinguishes between conjunctive or and disjunctive or''.'' · Conjunctive ''or means “at least one of the''' options, or maybe both.” It uses the word ba. o In questions, ba indicates that one is asking about whether or not a certain condition applies to at least one thing or person in a set, not for the specific person to whom the condition applies. § Eya ba eiy sail ma? Does he or shexi know? o In declarative statements, ba indicates that a certain condition applies to at least one member of a set. § Eya ba eiy sail. He or she knows. § Eya ba eiy zih sail. He or she does not know. · Disjunctive or, also called ''or'' of alternatives', means that a certain condition applies to only one or some' (or is expected to apply to only one or some) members of a set, that is, “either A or B, but not A and B”. o In questions, the word zi is used between words of the same lexical category to indicate alternatives. § Ea zi ''eu vusu ma? Do you want this or that? · To this question are two answers: o Ea vusi. I want this. o Eu vusi. I want that. o In statements, the word ''zi is used between words of the same lexical category to indicate that a condition or action applies to only one member of a set. § Janri zi ''Junri awjahi. I will accept/hire Jan or Jun. o In questions, the word ''zi is used between the same word written or spoken twice in order to ask “…A or not A”. § Beleue zi ''beleue zu? (“Well not well?”) Are you well or not well? Being verbs and constructions In English, one word is used to indicate essence, existence, location, state, condition, and action, ''be; however, Zekaisivarsi employs several verbs and constructions. Essives Essives are words that denote intrinsic characteristics or significant traits. Identity, occupation The verb used to indicate one’s identity or occupation is il. Both words are in the absolutive case. Tyi il aijai. Tyi is a leader. Ye i paar. I am a human. An emotional-emphatic construction uses noun-noun without verb. Aj ul awjahi. U zit. '' We hire only adults. You are not an adult. ''Aye aj. I am an adult! Existence The word for expressing existence is efi “to exist, be; to have”. The entity is in the stative case and the location of the entity is in the absolutive case. Entities do not always have to bind with a locative. Efil''' Af.'' God exists. God is. There is God. Ie! Ie! '''Efil' jiwrisi!'' Come see! Come see! There is water! Jzairueye '''efil' galmoupeii.'' In my house, there is great love. Although this verb can take a locative, it cannot simply be used to ask where someone or something is. *''Efi '''aabaeel ajarama? ''Where does the food exist? Where is food real? Copulatives Location Location is indicated by several distinct verbs. Jzaih ''Jzaih (literally, “that one lives, that one dwells”) denotes continuous stay in a place, that is, staying somewhere for a while. It is typically used with places of residence or obligation. Ajara jzau ma? Where are you? Jzair jzai. I am at home. Ierhaur jzai. I am at school. Zeih Zeih (literally, “that one stands”) denotes being somewhere for a certain amount of time for a certain purpose''. '' Eaih Eaih (literally, “that one sits, lies, reclines”) is used of persons to denote staying somewhere to rest and of things to denote being situated somewhere. Zurvischir eai. ''I am on my bed. ''Ajara e’'xii'' librarei eail ma?'' Where is the library? '' Jir e’ Bueliece eail e’ librarei. ''The library is on Bueliece Street. Special uses of the word ''ar Besides its meaning of “person”, the word ar fulfils other specific roles in a discourse such as indicating voice, saying that something happened without specifying who did it, signaling a relative clause, etc. Indicating voice The word ar ''is the Zekaisi quasi-equivalent to the English ''passive voice'', which indicates an action without the actor.'' Orthography Real Zekaisivarsi does NOT use the Latin alphabet, and native Zekaiseii tend not to transliterate their language into a non-Zekaisei form, as Zekaisivarsi is a dialect continuum'', not a language. .'' Ifwai In Zekaisivarsi, seemingly innocuous words can have quite nefarious meanings in certain contexts. This quality and the words that have it are called ifwai, which means “deep meaning” or “multifaceted”. Many of these words refer to body parts or bodily actions, and others of them refer to various entities or actions. These “secondary” meanings are not listed in formal dictionaries because of their offensiveness. Use them with caution. If possible, use a safe word instead. Now, behold the two-faced words… Oh, and by the way, there exists a taboo on those with whom you are not acquainted. According to the Zekaiseii who live according to ''uixiii'' rather than nations, to “invoke the Name of another is to strive to appeal to her essence”. The Name is considered a private thing, an intimate aspect of a person to be used only with their consent. A person’s parents made a person’s Name for the honor of their child, not to have it called and misappropriated by some ''ankwuxiv. Therefore, people who were not friends of the child or his/her family were forbidden to say the Name under penalty of faukraui'xv. Relations Zekaisivarseii use particular words and constructions to indicate various relations between substantives, broadly classed as association and possession. Association Association 'refers to relationships between persons, including familial relations (''kinship), social relations (socialization), and professional relations (contract). Ayrih In Zekaisivarsi, to state that one has a specific relationship with someone, one uses the word ''ayrih''. ''Ayrih'' literally means “sit together with” and conveys the meaning of “know intimately”. When it is translated to English, it is often rendered “have”. ''Binaiy ski paj e paj '''ayri.'' I have ten brothers. (I know ten brothers; brother COUNT-PARTICLE hand “five” and hand “five” I know) Amiei ihar bele '''ayri'.'' I have good close friends. The Zekaiseii do indeed have a word (several words, actually) that can be rendered “have”, including saih, ihnaih, aiaih, and efi, but none of them actually make literal sense. Binaiy ski paj e paj '''sai'.'' I have ten brothers. This makes sense, right? Actually, no. Not at all. See, sai denotes a possessive having, a holding. So what I’m really saying is “I am holding ten brothers.” But couldn’t those brothers be mine, one may ask? No. One has to examine the semantics of the sentence. The “ten brothers” I “am holding” are brothers in relation to each other, not to me. Binaiy ski paj e paj '''ihnai'.'' I have ten brothers. This refers to a laying claim to a thing, Possession Possession refers to ownership or use of an inanimate thing. The structures used to indicate possession are called iyakai. Ei/ya possession The particles ei and ya ''denote inherent or inalienable possession, such as one’s relation to a body part or a mental aspect. The prefix ''ei is usually used with body parts, personal aspects, living necessities, and things that are possessed but not owned, such as creative worksxvi. Ye 'eimiens rhajai.'' I consider in (with) my head. Ye 'eijza jzai.'' I live in my house. With the particle ei, the possessor is always in first position and the possessed thing is in second position in the possessive phrase. The possessor is always in the absolutive case and the possessed in the possessed case. As a phrase, this can be used as a topic, focus, subject, object, or adjunct. In the above sentences, it functions as an adjunct. The prefix ya is used with intrinsic aspects of a person, especially the spiritual and mental aspects. yazu iji duje.'' You are of bad character. Na ''possession The particle ''na denotes ownership of an inanimate object. Word formation Due to the synthetic nature of Zekaiseivarsei, words are being created constantly through various processes. Inflection '''Inflection is the process of changing the grammatical state of a word by adding, removing, or altering morphemes. This is useful to creating new words in open classes.xvii ame ''(factive) “I love” > ''[[amai|am'ai']] (substantive) “one who loves, lover, friend” The word amai is derived from the lemma ame ''“I love” through affixation of the morpheme ''ai “a person who does”. The affix ai changes the grammatical state from action (factive) to actor (substantive). Compounding Compounding is the combination of two or more roots or independent morphemes to create a word. When compounding a factive and its object, the object precedes the factive. When compounding a substantive and its descriptive, the descriptive succeeds the substantive. Consider the word aurwai. It is a substantive that is composed of a substantive (ar, “person”) and a factive (wai, “I make, form, develop, create over time”). In the first stage, ar wai ''is a clause wherein ''ar and wai are distinct words and depend upon each other to convey the complete meaning. In the second stage, ar morphs to aur due to the VC-to-VVC sound change rule, which is that “whenever a vowel shall precede a consonant in a syllable and said syllable shall precede a syllable that begins with a consonant, the preceding syllable shall add a relative vowel after its vowel or shall stress its vowel (VC/CV… > VVC/CV…)”. The object precedes the factive. Consider the word dubel. It consists of two roots, du ''“evil” and ''bel “good”. Radical lemmatization Radical lemmatization is the process of making a root into a word. A root is a morpheme that carries significant meaning and can stand independently. A lemma is a basic word, uninflected save for essential inflections. The root bel means “good, healthy, whole”. From this root come various words. bel good, healthy, whole bele virtuous List of roots and their derivatives Here is a list of the most common roots in the Zekaisivarsi. i '''''Iei: formerly a substantive of various meanings, among which were “stick”, “branch”, “rock”, “pebble”; from these meanings developed the sense of “number, quantity”; used as a general count classifier during the Uae Naja'ah (as in ''uuk'''' iei paj, “five rocks COUNT five”); reanalyzed as a particle ii 'Bele: (here rendered “virtuous,” often translated “good”) denotes a kind of character that is upright, morally honorable iii 'Absolutive case. '''See endnote ''xvi iv If there’s one thing you learn about the Zekaisivarsi, it’s that there’s no such thing as regular inflection. v ''Ses: happy, joyful, content with life; enlightened, wise, sapient vi 'Rhajazekaisivar: a public civil council consisting of linguists and specialists who convene to regulate common expression in Zekaisivarseii vii Person: comprises all categories pertaining to subjects, including first, second, or third person, and singular, dual, or plural number viii Tense: comprises all categories pertaining to time, including when an event happens (tense), how long it happens (duration), and how often it happens (aspect) ix Mood: comprises factuality (realis vs irrealis) and attitude x The qualificatives of place and time (spatial-temporal qualificatives)'' vary according to'' the dialect of each ui. These apply to Common Standard Zekaisivarsi. xi In Zekaisivarsi, the use of a “he or she” construction always refers to two distinct persons, never a person of unidentified gender. xii E’ is used before proper names and foreign words that have not been haumvaur ''(considered a common word by the people). It means that is called but is often left untranslated. xiii 'Ui: a group of people bound together by blood and/or mutual concern for one another, family and friends; considered more stable than a society as members act for the good of each other rather than their own; often mistranslated tribe or clan or even ethnicity xiv ''Ankwu: a stranger, a foreigner, an outsider; one who does not belong to the ui in discussion; a trespasser, an intruder, an invader; a non-friend, a foe, an enemy; alien, illegal immigrant; them (in Us vs. them) xv 'Faukraui: literally “throwing out from the people”, a form of combined action in which an entire community decides to banish a person from the land and deny his/her return xvi The use of particles varies according to dialect. In the Kanjei dialect, ya ''is used with things that are owned but not worked for, such as body parts and creative works that one did not create but rather uses in contrast to ''na, which denotes things that are worked for or created, and ei is used solely for body parts. Thus, uikai '''ya' ye'' means “the book that I read” whereas uikai '''na' ye'' means “the book that I write/have written”. Ye '''ei'uikai*'' would denote that the book is a part of “my” body, which is not at all possible. In the Mizwe dialect, ya is used with things that originate from someone, such as body parts and creative works, and ei is reserved for body parts. The particle ei ''indicates things to which one does not hold prime claim but that one possesses. ''Na ''refers to things physically held by someone. Thus, ''uikai '''ya' ye'' means “the book that I write/have written” whereas uikai '''na' ye means “the book that I possess; my copy of the book”. xvii '''Open classes': lexical categories to which words can be freely added, tend to carry semantic meaning; include substantives, factives, descriptives, and enumeratives xviii ABS: Absolutive case, represents the person or entity directly affected by the action denoted by the factive xix 1psg: first-person singular xx PRES: present tense Category:Grammar